BD Wong, the actor beloved for his role in “Law & Order,” is responding after an unfortunate incident on social media. And trust us when we say this situation is far from pretty.
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Let’s set the scene. Things all went left after a man named Mike Holston–who goes by @therealtarzann on social media and is known for interacting with exotic animals regularly–posted a picture on Threads with him and a creature. Though it appeared to be a wombat or the equivalent, he asked his followers to guess what type of animal it was but with the caveat: “wrong answers only.”
While his fans and followers went in the comments section with their deliberately wrong answers, Wong did the same. However–his comment didn’t land well at all.
“It appears to be a black man,” Wong wrote initially before deleting it.
As you might expect, folks started feeling some type of way and came for him to let him know how wrong he was.
“That was so stupid and disappointing of him to say,” one user wrote on Instagram.
“I bet if the joke was about the LGBT+ community… he wouldn’t find it as funny,” said another.
“Oh NO-I expected better of BD Wong,” another person added.
Over on TikTok, user Ed–who is also Asian like Wong–gave the TV star a quick history lesson on why him calling the animal a Black man ws rooted in an ugly, anit-Black and racist history.
“BD Wong, I need you to understand the animalization of Black people isn’t a joke because it’s rooted in white supremacy and anti-Blackness,” Ed said. “Throughout the history or not only this country but just colonization. Black people have always been compared to animals by white people to dehumanize them so that they don’t have to feel bad about the fact that they did not have to treat them humane at all.”
However, instead of seeing how his comment could be taken the wrong way, he lowkey doubled down.
“Well it said wrong answers only but I could see why people wouldn’t get that so I deleted it real quick but yea that was the dumb idea,” he wrote in another since-deleted post.
Now, after even more backlash ensued, Wong is finally apologizing and is even acknowledging the racist undertones that his words harbored.
“I want to elaborate re a racist comment I posted, to clarify that I recognize & accept the responsibility for how terrible it is. It’s also wrong to try to ‘explain’ anything, & I think that causes a further breaking down in folks’ trust,” he said on his personal Threads account on Tuesday. “Let me please spend the energy on how wrong I know it is to exploit a despicable, racist trope in the supposed spirit of humor; I do know better, but again no excuses. Very sorry for the hurt I’ve caused & for taking lightly something so deeply injurious.”
Straight From 
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